Experian Marketing Services has just published the findings of a new survey that reveals what marketers are planning for the holiday season.
“Retailers have been extending the shopping seasons with promotions, post-recession, so it’s not surprising to see that nearly half of all marketers stated they would launch a holiday campaign before Halloween,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Experian.
The majority of marketers began planning their holiday campaigns in the summer months. The month of June earned the title as the top holiday planning month as 18 percent of the marketers surveyed stated they would start then. Overall 69 percent of the marketers stated they started planning holiday campaigns by August.
“This year’s Back to School season started in early July as a big promotional month versus last year,” Tancer says. “Our consumer confidence data shows it as the highest it’s been since the recession, so we expect the early promotion trend to carry over into the holiday season with Black Friday deals being offered even earlier than last year.”
Marketers are planning on integrating across channels more than ever this year.
Of those surveyed, 83 percent said they plan on running coordinated, cross-channel marketing campaigns during the holiday season, with 55 percent stating they will be coordinating marketing campaigns across four or more channels – including mobile.